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Family & ICE friendly car

Wanted to open this thread for quite sometime..didn't get much time.

Here are my requirements
- Budget: Around 10L
- Should be ICE friendly
- ie, Dash should not be too forward like in Scorpio where the stock tweeters placed there creating bad sound stage
- Decent damping to reduce engine noise. I can live with road noise. So petrol / diesel doesn't matter.
- Open for Sedan, SUV or MUV. But, not for mini SUVs. Do travel fully loaded once a quarter across states (1000kms+ round trip). Good luggage space, rear leg room.
- Really appreciate rear ac vents. With sunscreen gone now, it is becoming a real torture for rear passengers.
- Reliable and less frequent visits to garage appreciated for car noobs like me.
- Good after sales service and decent service network.
- Open for lightly used vehicles as well.
- Decent resale value

Though I am not a big fan of the Hondas, I must admit their cars are the best to ICE. Be it the Brio, Jazz, ANHC, Civic, Accord almost all of them have deep dashes and mostly flat.

Very easy to get a good soundstage and imaging along with good depth.

But their engines are bad, build quality not on par with the Germans and they never feel as enthusiastic to drive as the VW/Skoda cars.

The Vento/Rapid on the other hand are peppy, well built and are decent cars to ICE too. Not as good as the Hondas though.

Not a big fan of the Xylo, Ertiga is a pretty nice car to ICE, but being a Maruti it will rattle like hell and the boot space is very less and will be hard to fit a sub if the enclosure size needs to be big. Haven't seen the Mobilio yet, you may want to check on that.

I'd take out Linea out of that list! The only good thing it has is the recessed A pillars, so fitting a mid-range + tweeter is a piece of a cake!

I recently sat in the latest ANHC and the dashboard layout looks sweet. Would definitely love to throw in a tab there along with a DSP. That dash looks like it was tailor made for a dash+DSP setup. If only you could live with the lousy engines, plus poor ride and handling.

matbhuvi - Consider Fiat Linea or the TJET if you're keen on the performance aspect as well. Ticks all boxes of your requirements of ICE, Space, leg room. Only pit fall is their service network & resale value.

All Japense Honda, Suzuki you know their quality of metals used. Thin sheets & needs a lot of damping.

Germans are equally good but the ASS attitude & horror stories you would've heard a lot about.

Xylo, really a ICE friendly car ?

Of Ertiga & Fiesta I would pick Ertiga. Its decent build quality & proven workhorse engine + Maruti ASS gives you peace of mind. Don't expect to be fulfilled on the performance aspects with it. Its a no non-sense family vehicle.

Dream is not what you see when you sleep;dream is something that doesn't make you sleep - A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.Mahindra XUV 500
Tata Tiago XZ PetrolHonda Hornet
Honda ActivaHonda Dio

Though I am not a big fan of the Hondas, I must admit their cars are the best to ICE. Be it the Brio, Jazz, ANHC, Civic, Accord almost all of them have deep dashes and mostly flat.

Originally Posted by Lvramanan

All Japense Honda, Suzuki you know their quality of metals used. Thin sheets & needs a lot of damping.

I do agree that the Honda's interior are no better than Maruti. But, i am surprised that you are saying the engine is not so peppy.

Vento seems to be the best among the lot. I really like my brother's polo. I could settle well for vento as well. I don't have much idea about their ASS in bangalore.

Heard that Skoda service in Bangalore is much better than in Chennai. If that is true, then Rapid shall also be considered.

Originally Posted by Lvramanan

Xylo, really a ICE friendly car ?

No idea about that. But, it is really bigger than many mock suvs and fits the budget. If i had the budget, i would have definitely gone for XUV.

Originally Posted by Lvramanan

Of Ertiga & Fiesta I would pick Ertiga.

Ertiga and Mobilio are real vfm cars. Bit sore for the eyes, but get the job done. But, as Rahul said, keeping a 12inch sub would be close to impossible. Their boot space is worse than hatchback with 3rd rows up. That will be a real concern for me.

For now, yes the service experience has improved from what it used to be. If you are looking at the Vento and Rapid I would suggest you wait for the complete face-lifted models on both of them and then take a pick, the AT is also a tempting option between these...

For Ice my pick from your options would be the Linea, however it will not satisfy other needs. Overall the VW cousins head the list followed by the Honda

Actually Honda plastics are much better than Maruti. But even then expect a ton of damping need to be done. It will nowhere near rattle as much as a Maruti.

And with regards to ICE, it's one of the best cars that you can get for yourself. Why don't you drop by Bangalore and hear piyush7243's car so that you'll get a better idea.

Originally Posted by matbhuvi

But, i am surprised that you are saying the engine is not so peppy.

Hhhhmmm! The famous Honda engines!

The i-DTEC smokes like a chimney, tuned very sedately, can barely feel the turbo kicking in, power band is largely very linear. Coming from a Swift/DZire you'll find it terribly boring to drive and slow.

The VTEC has good top end but anything below 4000 and it's dead. Thing barely has any Torque. When I drive Piyush's Honda in town, I feel like killing myself. The same stretches I do in 3rd gear in my Baleno, his car I'll have to be in 1st gear. I can go over speed breakers and come down in 3rd in the Suzuki, where as in the Honda it will knock even in 2nd.

Between the petrol and the diesel, I'd pick the petrol, it's definitely the better of the engines though I am not a great fan of the NO-torque engines.

Originally Posted by matbhuvi

Vento seems to be the best among the lot. I really like my brother's polo. I could settle well for vento as well. I don't have much idea about their ASS in bangalore.

It's OKish! Except for the fact that you'll have to pay way more higher bills for repair (daylight robbery actually) and service costs are quite high compared to your previous car.

A Vento DSG will be a beautiful drivers car. But as a car to ICE, it again can't beat the ANHC. The slope of the windshield will end up too close to your tweeters and mid-range if you are doing a FG pod install.

Polo DSG, that is what we'd buying for my brother sometimes this year end. I know VW A.S.S would be a PITA, but since I can source all the parts myself and work on the car myself, I would be sending it to them only for regular oil change and nothing else other than warranty claims. So VW A.S.S won't be that big an issue for me.

Originally Posted by Roadking

For Ice my pick from your options would be the Linea

Except for the fact that it has recessed A-pillars where you can easily make a good set of pods and won't hamper your visibility, I see no other benefit of ICEing a Linea to say a ANHC/Vento. The Linea doors are too big and deep and getting good mid-bass is a bit difficult unless you have something like the Anarchy or Germanium or KRX2 mid-bass.